Mill Street Telegraph Station

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best by the story. You know, communication has always been a kind of magic. What began, the marker says, as smoke signals from hill to hill eventually gave way to something new: lines on poles.

The telegraph arrived in the United States in the mid-1800s, and Texas cities started stringing those lines and building stations to go with them. New Braunfels was no different. The town opened its first telegraph station in the 1860s, right inside the Guadalupe Hotel.

That hotel was the hub, the nerve center, the place where words traveled faster than any horse. And the man doing the work was August Schmitz, born in 1830. Schmitz was a schoolteacher by trade, and he spoke both German and English, which in New Braunfels was no small thing.

He operated as the telegrapher in that hotel, tapping out messages, receiving them, until 1871. That's when the office moved. Not far, mind you, but it moved.

It followed Schmitz right to his home on Mill Street. Now, that house is worth a word or two on its own. It's a mid-1800s structure built in the half-timber style, what the Germans call fachwerk, and the mud bricks in its walls came straight from Comal Creek.

The land itself went into the building. The telegraph office stayed there on Mill Street until 1879, when it was moved back to the Guadalupe Hotel. And then, two years after that, in 1881, it moved again, this time to the railroad depot.

From smoke signals on hilltops, to a hotel, to a schoolteacher's fachwerk home on Mill Street, and finally to the depot where the trains rolled in. The message always found a way to keep moving.

What the marker says

What began as smoke signals from hill to hill evolved into lines on poles. The telegraph was introduced in the United States in the mid-1800s and many cities in Texas began constructing lines and stations. New Braunfels opened its first telegraph station in the 1860s at the Guadalupe Hotel. August Schmitz (1830–1894) operated as a telegrapher in the hotel until 1871 when the office moved to his home on Mill Street. Schmitz was a schoolteacher and spoke German and English. The mid-1800s house is of half-timber, or fachwerk, style with mud bricks made from Comal Creek. The office was located there until 1879 when it was moved back to the hotel and then to the railroad depot in 1881.